With violent crime on the rise, the YMCA of Greater Montgomery is stepping up, reaching out to area youth

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- A 7-year-old who was shot in the leg during an exchange of gunfire while riding his bicycle attended programs at the YMCA in his west Montgomery neighborhood last summer.

With violent crime on the rise in the city coupled with declining YMCA members, the YMCA of Greater Montgomery is now reaching out to provide more resources and outlets for youth and other residents of the city.

The first way the YMCA intends to do this is through a one-on-one mentoring program designed to give a child -- from a low-income and likely single-parent household -- the opportunity to have a positive influence in their life.

“The importance of this program is that it matches 35 mentors with 35 youth over a two-year period,” Darryl Woods, YMCA senior vice president of community development, said. The program will run out of the Kershaw YMCA. Recruiting begins this month.

The Rise & Reach Program Mentoring Program, which was funded with $103,000 from the YMCA of the United States, launched in San Francisco 20 years ago, is designed for children ages 6-17 in communities where poverty, crime, truancy, single-parent households are challenges as in Montgomery.

“If you can get a positive adult role model for a lot of kids who don’t have that in their life, their success rate goes up exponentially,” Gary Cobbs, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Montgomery, said. “When you do that, you change that kid’s life and that mentor’s life.”

Both Cobbs and Woods said they believe in mentoring because they know how important positive role models were in their lives, and they wouldn’t have made it as far in their lives if they didn’t have them.

Cobbs, who was previously employed at the YMCA of Middle Tennessee for nearly two decades, has seen mentoring work. Members who had been involved in the program have come back years later and told him that the YMCA saved their lives.

“Sometimes you don’t know the positive effects, you can have on a child’s life,” he said. “I know it makes a difference.”

Woods said everyone knows Montgomery had 50 homicides in 2013 and many other shootings.

Dozens of armed robberies and likely some of last year’s shootings were committed by teenagers who should have been at home.

And, Cobbs said the YMCA isn’t going to stand on the sidelines when this is happening in its community.

He said the best way to make a difference is to reach children at a young age, which is why the mentoring program is open to 6-year-olds. By the time a child reaches 11 to 13 years of age, they are looking to belong to something.

When a child is reached early, then they learn right from wrong and learn to form healthy relationships, Cobbs said.

Woods said the YMCA wants to help plant the seeds of change by providing a safe and constructive place for local children to play basketball, do their homework and learn how to dance or sing, in addition to the new mentoring program.

Unlike when growing plants, he said it will be 10-15 years before the community will be able to see the results.

“It is a challenging, but it is a good opportunity to change a life,” Woods said.

More than 250 children in the city participate in the YMCA’s basketball program beginning at the age of 3. Now, most YMCA’s including Kershaw and Cleveland Avenue have gym equipment for members of any age.

Anyone interested in becoming a mentor to a young girl or boy should call the YMCA at 834-2232. Applicants will go through a thorough background check to be accepted and go through training.